UC-NRLF 


4(9 
L4 


IN  MEMOR1AM 
FLOR1AN  CAJORI 


Tides 


THE   CONTINENT -MAKING 
FORCES 


OF  THE 


SOLAR 

SYSTEM 


Written  in 
Confirmation 
and 

Elucidation 
of  the 
Author's 
Discovery 
of  the 
Fabric  of 
Cosmic 
Energy 


By 
JOHN  LEUTHOLD 


THE  TIDES 

AND 

THE  CONTINENT  -  MAKING  FORCES 
OF  THE  SOLAR  SYSTEM 


.-<*-". 


THE  TIDES 


AND 


The  Continent-Making  Forces 
of  the  Solar  System 


WRITTEN   IN   CONFIRMATION   AND   ELUCIDATION   OF 
THE  DOCTRINE  OF 

THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY 


BY 

JOHN\LEUTHOLD 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  AUTHOR 

AT  BRECKENRIDGE,  COLORADO,  U.  S.  A. 

1921 


CAJORI 


It  is 

the  Junc- 
tion of  science, 
not,  as  some   think, 
to   divest   this   universe 
of  its  wonder  and    mystery, 
but,  as  in  the  case  before  us,  to  point 
out  the  wonder  and  mystery  of  common  things. 
The  phenomena  of  matter  and  force  lie 
within  our  intellectual  range, 
and  as  far  as  they  reach          ' 
we  will  at  all  hazards 
push   our   in- 
quiries. 
TCKDALL 


PRINTED  BY 

THE  SUMMIT  COUNTY  JOURNAL  PRESS 
BRECKENRIDGE,  COLO. 


L4 


"  It  was  t*«<utd  that  die  mu,d  of  raajct  had  the  power  of  penetrating  far  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  his  fire  sendee;  that  tke  thine*  which  are  Men  in  the  material  world  depend  for  their  action 
upon  things  nnaeea  ;  in  short,  that,  besides  the  phenomena  which  address  the  senses,  there  are 
laws  and  principles  and  nroeesws  which  do  not  address  the  senses  at  all,  bat  which  must  be,  and 
can  be,  spiritually  discerned.  To  the  subjects  which  reqnire  this  discernment  belong  the  phenom- 
ena of  Molecular  [?]  force.  -  JOHN  TTNDALL. 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTES 


and  very 


HE  days  of  the  " luminiferous  ether"  theory  are  -numbered ;  so  are  the  days  of  that 
element  in  the  wave-theory  of  light  which  is  based  upon  an  analogy  with  the  circu- 
lar undulations  produced  when  an  object  is  dropped  upon  a  placid  sheet  of  water ; 
and  so  are  the  days  of  the  theory  that  the  light-propagating  force  is  resident  in  the 
atoms  from  which  the  light  proceeds.  With  the  ether  hypothesis  will  also  die  the 
electron  theory  of  electricity  and  the  attraction  theory  of  magnetism  and  gravitation. 
The  death  sentence  was  pronounced  upon  the  ether  theory  when  for  the  first  time  it 
was  said  by  scientific  authority  that  the  space-filling  medium  has  the  rigidity  of  a 
solid  (Lord  Kelvin).  The  sentence  has  been  repeatedly  confirmed  by  similar  authority, 
recently  by  Prof.  Hugh  Eliot,  who  says  in  his  book  on  "Modern  Science  and  Materialism"  : 


"This  ether,  whatever  else  it  may  be,  is  not  matter.  The  properties  which  it  must  possess,  if  it  is 
to  account  for  the  facts  for  which  it  was  invoked,  could  not  possibly  exist  together  in  matter.  It  must 
have  a  rigidity  greater  than  that  of  steel ;  it  must  have  a  density  many  million  times  greater  than  that 
of  lead  ;  and  yet  it  must  be  so  attenuated  that  the  stars  and  planets  can  fly  through  it  at  huge  velocities 
without  the  smallest  sign  of  retardation  or  friction." 

No  substance  consisting  of  detached  and  widely  separated  particles  can  qualify  for  the  functions 
of  the  space-filling,  light-transmitting,  gravitation-producing  medium.  The  ether  is  pictured  as  an 
extremely  attenuated  gas,  immeasurably  thinner  than  air.  Yet  even  air  fails  utterly  as  a  medium  for 
carrying  anything  in  straight  paths  such  as  light  pursues. 

"In  air,  for  instance,  at  normal  temperatures,  the  molecules  are  all  traveling  on  the  average  at 
about  a  thousand  miles  an  hour— nearly  as  fast  as  a  rifle  bullet,  and  faster  than  the  velocity  of  sound 
through  air.  Their  motion  takes  place  in  all  directions ;  and  since  they  are  incessantly  colliding  with 
one  another,  each  molecule  is  constantly  changing  the  direction  of  its  motion.  On  the  average,  a 
molecule  moves  only  three-millionths  of  an  inch  before  colliding  with  another;  and  since  their  velocity 
is  so  great,  the  average  number  of  collisions  for  each  molecule  is  about  six  thousand  million  a  second." 
(Eliot.) 

For  the  attenuated  ether,  these  figures  as  to  distances  and  velocities  must  be  multiplied  thou- 
sands, if  not  millions,  of  times.  Thus  the  ether  is  utterly  disqualified  for  the  functions  of  the  space- 
filling medium. 

To  these  damaging  declarations  of  the  physicists  Dr.  Albert  Einstein  has  added  the  adverse  testi- 
mony of  higher  mathematics. 

These  developments  made  the  time  seem  opportune  for  the  publication  of  the  conclusions  to  which 
many  years  of  nature-study  had  led  the  undersigned  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  what  Herbert  Spencer 
called  "the  space-occupying  kind  of  force."  That  such  a  force  existed  had  been  impressed  upon  the 
undersigned  both  by  observation  and  reason.  Consequently,  on  March  27,  1920,  he  committed  to  the 
columns  of  his  newspaper,  The  Summit  County  Star,  a  brief  and  general  description  of  the  space- 
filling kind  of  force  as  reason  had  revealed  it  to  him,  and  he  named  it  The  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy. 

In  that  article  there  was  expressed  the  conviction  that  all  space  is  filled  with  a  densely  woven 
network  or  fabric  of  invisible,  all-penetrating,  continuous  and  indestructible  lines  or  wires  of  force, 
of  which  the  lines  of  force  in  a  magnetic  field  are  examples  made  observable  by  distortion  ;  that  the 
magnetic  fields  which  man  creates  in  shops  and  laboratories  are  intensified  small  fields  within  im- 
mensely larger  but  weaker  fields  existing  in  space  ;  that  all  magnetic  fields,  both  the  natural  and  the 
artificial,  are  strains  in  or  distortions  of  the  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy  ;  that  the  rays  or  lines  of  the 


L 


INTRODUCTORY     NOTES 


Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy  have  an  inherent  normal  speed  equal  to  that  of  light  in  vacuum, which  apeed 
is  more  or  less  reduced  when  the  rays  pass  through  matter,  in  which  retardation  lies  the  explanation 
of  the  force  of  gravitation  ;  that  the  rays  of  the  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy  are  the  carriers  of  the 
vibrations  of  light,  heat,  wireless  messages  and  other  electrical  phenomena  ;  in  short,  that  the  Fabric 
of  Cosmic  Energy  is  the  seat  and  source  of  all  enei-gy. 

This  is,  of  course,  a  revolutionary  scientific  doctrine.  Moreover,  it  is  purely  physical,  and  requires 
a  kind  of  mental  vision  which  perhaps  few  possess.  Scientific  thought  has  so  long  been  directed  and 
dominated  by  the  mathematicians  that  constructive  imagination  illuminated  by  pure  reason  has  be- 
come a  sadly  neglected  accomplishment  of  the  human  mind,  and  especially  in  scholastic  circles.  The 
attainments  of  the  mathematicians  have  been  so  wonderful  and  awe-inspiring  that  the  world  confi- 
dently looked  to  them  for  the  solution  of  physical  problems  also,  not  realizing  that  the  highly  devel- 
oped mathematical  mind  is  the  most  untrustworthy  in  the  domain  of  physics. 

The  position  of  scholastic  science  was  fittingly  stated  by  one  of  its  representatives,  after  perusal 
of  several  articles  on  The  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy  : 

"  I  appreciate  your  articles  greatly.  I  found  them  very  interesting.  But  I  cannot  pass  expert 
judgment  on  them.  My  interests  lie  almost  exclusively  in  the  field  of  pure  mathematics." 

So  far  as  the  mathematical  physicists  can  see,  the  undersigned  has  merely  substituted  one  theory 
for  another  regarding  the  space-filling  medium,  and  they  say  they  must  withhold  judgment  pending 
further  elucidation. 

The  Einstein  theory  met  the  same  attitude.  For  fifteen  years  after  Dr.  Einstein  had  propounded 
his  theory,  the  scientific  world  remained  strangely  silent  concerning  it.  Finally,  when  confirmation  of 
the  theory  had  apparently  been  supplied  by  the  solar  eclipse  of  May,  1919,  (by  observations  also  sug- 
gested by  Einstein  himself),  the  Royal  Society  of  England  " recognized  "  the  Einstein  theory,  and 
now  nearly  every  person  laying  claim  to  scholarly  attainments  pretends  to  be  interested  in  it,  and 
many  pretend  to  comprehend  it. 

"Seeing  is  believing."     "Except  ye  see  signs  and  wonders,  ye  will  not  believe." 

Visual  confirmation  of  a  hypothesis  must  produce  faith  in  it,  but  faith  and  comprehension  are  far 
from  being  the  same  thing.  However,  where  comprehension  is  unattainable,  faith  and  respectful 
attention  will  not  be  despised. 

The  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy,  being  absolutely  invisible,  intangible,  like  the  lines  of  force  of  a 
magnetic  field,  can  only  be  studied  indirectly,  by  the  effects  of  it. 

This  essay  on  the  tides  and  the  continent-making  forces  has  been  written  in  elucidation  and  con- 
firmation of  the  doctrine  of  The  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy.  It  aims  to  picture  some  of  the  attributes 
and  functions  of  the  lines  of  the  fabric,  such  as  their  continuity,  elasticity  and  great  tensile  strength. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  conception  of  The  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy  is  a  bold  and  novel 
one.  To  ascertain  the  details  of  its  construction  and  operation  will  be  the  work  of  centuries.  To  de- 
scribe the  conception  either  in  words  or  diagrams  at  this  time  is  pioneer  work  and  quite  difficult. 

The  essay  offers  an  entirely  new  explanation  of  tide-production.  The  offer  is  made  with  great 
confidence,  because  the  explanation  is  one  that  can  in  its  main  features  be  verified  instrumental!/, 
and  the  author  believes  that  this  verification  will  soon  be  forthcoming. 

Happily,  some  forty  to  sixty  years  ago  the  scientific  world  was  blessed  with  representatives  like 
Whewell,  Airy.  Proctor  and  Loomis,  who  did  not  allow  preconceived  theory  to  distort  their  vision.  To 
these  great  men  the  present  writer  is  indebted  for  authoritative  descriptions  of  tidal  facts.  And  the 
explanation  here  advanced  is  in  perfect  agreement  with  those  facts. 

The  inevitable  fall  of  the  present  theory  of  tide-production,  upon  which  so  much  labor  has  been 
bestowed  and  to  which  so  much  profound  literature  has  been  devoted,  will  necessarily  shake  confi- 
dence in  many  other  explanations  of  natural  phenomena  formulated  by  the  mathematical  physicists. 
A  new  day  will  then  have  dawned  for  pure  physics  and  real  physicists. 

From  time  to  time  the  undersigned  hopes  to  publish  essays  offering  new  views  on  the  mechanism 
of  the  atom,  on  the  nature  of  electricity,  on  gravitation  and  magnetism,  on  the  probable  mode  of  pro- 
duction of  sunlight,  etc.,  all  logical  deductions  from  the  doctrine  of  The  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy. 

Any  member  of  the  Illuminating  Engineering  Society,  from  whose  intelligent  interest  the  author 
has  derived  much  encouragement,  may  obtain  one  copy  of  this  booklet  free  upon  application.  Addi- 
tional copies  may  be  had  for  $2.00  each. 

JOHN   LEUTHOLD. 
Breckenridge,  Colorado,  January  1,  1921. 


THE  TIDES 


AND 


THE  CONTINENT-MAKING  FORCES  OP  THE  SOLAR  SYSTEM 

SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY 


i 


N  the  latter  pert  of  August  of  this  year  (1920),  central  Chile  and  a 
part  of  western  Argentina  were  visited  by  a  seismic  disturbance, 


said  to  have  been  the  most  violent  since  the  earthquake  of  1916,   event 
when  Valparaiso  was  partly  destroyed,  with  great  loss  of  life.    This  from  a 
disturbance  was  spoken  of  as  "a  happy  event  from  a  scientific  point  scientific 
of  view"  by  Count  Montessus  de  Bailee,  director  of  the  Chilean  seis-  view-point 
mological  observatory.     Count  de  Balloe  was  by  the  Associated  Press 
credited  with  the  following  explanation  of  his  remark  : 

"For  the  last  eighteen  months  there  has  been  complete  seismic 
tranquility,  and  we  know  that  an  undisturbed  condition  prepares  dis- 
asters in  countries  subject  to  such  phenomena.  The  frequent  rumblings 
correspond  to  what  may  be  called  'small  coin '  earthquakes.  When  no 
quakes  are  produced  for  a  long  period,  the  effort  is  accumulated  until 
it  breaks  out  violently  as  the  forces  succeed  in  crushing  the  elastic 
resistance  of  the  terrestrial  strata." 


The  count  was  further  credited  with  the  statement  that  "Now,  ac- 
cording to  all  probabilities,  we  will  return  to  a  state  of  normal  seis- 
mical  activity  instead  of  a  menacing  calm." 

"We  will  return  to  a  state  of  normal  seismical  activity  !  "  Count 
de  Balloe  says  in  effect  that  he  lives  in  a  region  where  "normal 
seismical  activity"  is  synonymous  with  almost  constant  seismical 
activity.  And  he  does  live  in  such  a  region.  Still,  the  causes  of  this 
condition  remain  a  deep  mystery  to  him,  the  director  of  the  seismo- 
logical  observatory. 

Count  de  Bailee's  reference  to  "accumulated  effort"  in  connection 
with  Chilean  earthquakes  calls  to  mind  what  the  late  G.  K.  Gilbert, 
of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  many  years  ago  wrote  on  the 
subject  of  earthquakes  for  an  encyclopedia  : 


Good 
region  for 
study  of 
earth- 
quakes 


THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT -MAKING_FORCES_: 

"In  the  descriptive  literature  of  earthquakes  there  is  probably 
E"  considerable  confusion  of  cause  and  effect.    In  connection  with  an 
g  earthquake  in  1822  several  hundred  miles  of  the  coast  of  Chile  were 
forces  are  lifted  to  a  height  of  several  feet,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
building  a  portions  of  the  land  at  a  distance  from  the  sea  were  raised  more  than 
mountain  those  at  its  border.  It  was  computed  that  the  volume  of  rock  changed 
range  from  a  position  below  the  plane  of  sea-level  to  a  position  above  that 
plane  was  comparable  in  magnitude  with  Mount  JEtna,  and  this  stu- 
pendous result  was  supposed  to  have  been  caused  by  the  earthquake. 
As  the  subject  is  at  present  understood,  it  appears  more  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  the  continent-making  for  ces  of  the  earth's  crust,  what- 
ever  their   origin  may  be,   tended   to  elevate  that  portion  of  South 
America,  and  for  a  long  period  had  accumulated  strains  which  were 
opposed  by  the  elasticity  and  rigidity  of  the  crustal  material.     When 
By  accu-  finalty  ^ie  resistance  was  overpowered  by  the  strains,  fractures  oc- 
*         ~  curred  along  certain  critical  lines,  the  tract  of  land  rose,  the  strains 
®  ivere  in  great  part  relieved,  and  an  earthquake  occurred  as  an  inci- 
}T  dental  result— a  result  of  supreme  importance  to  the  unfortunate  in- 
of  strains  habitants  of  that  country,  but  relatively  insignificant  as  a  phenome- 
non of  physical  geography." 

Count  de  Bailee's  statement  also  renders  timely  a  repetition  of 
some  sentences  from  an  essay  on  "The  Earthquake  in  Peru,"  by 
Richard  A.  Proctor,  also  written  many  years  ago  : 

"The  difference  in  character  between  the  Peruvian  and  Chilean 
earthquakes  is  a  singular  and  interesting  phenomenon.  ...  It  is  said 
that  in  Chile  a  year  scarcely  ever  passes  without  shocks  of  earthquake 
being  felt;  in  certain  regions  not  even  a  month.  A  similar  persistence 
of  earthquake  disturbance  characterizes  Peru.  Yet,  although  both 
districts  are  shaken  in  this  manner,  there  seems  to  be  a  distinct  evi- 
dence of  alternating  disturbance  as  respects  the  occurrence  of  great 
earthquakes.  Thus,  in  1797,  took  place  the  terrible  earthquake  of  Rio- 
bamba.  Then,  thirty  years  later,  a  series  of  great  earthquakes  shook 
Chile,  permanently  elevating  the  whole  line  of  coast  to  the  height  of 
several  feet 

"Darwin  relates  that  near  Valparaiso  he  saw  beds  of  sea-shells 
belonging  to  recent  species  at  a  height  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
above  the  present  sea-level,  and  he  concluded  that  the  land  had  been 
raised  to  this  height  by  a  series  of  such  small  elevations  as  were  ob- 
served to  have  taken  place  during  the  earthquakes  of  1822,  1835  and 
1837." 

According  to  Mr.  Gilbert,  one  Chilean  earthquake  alone  had  the 
"stupendous  result"  of  changing  from  a  position  below  sea-level  to  a 
position  above  that  level  a  volume  of  rock  comparable  in  magnitude 
with  Mount  ^Itna  !  It  must  surely  be  pardonable  to  take  issue  with 
him  when  he  finally  declares  the  event  to  have  been  "relatively  in- 
significant as  a  phenomenon  of  physical  geography." 

"  The  continent-making  forces  of  the  earth's  crust!  "  Are  not  the 
re  of  forces  to  which  Mr.  Gilbert,  in  the  scientific  light  of  his  day,  chose  to 
give  this  name  calculated  to  awaken  the  keenest  kind  of  interest  and 
forces?  PromPt  diligent  research ?  Is  it  not  reasonable  to  expect  that  a  dis- 
covery and  explanation  of  these  stupendous  forces  would  have  a  far- 
reaching  influence  upon  the  world's  scientific  knowledge  and  probably 
revolutionize  and  wonderfully  advance  much  of  it  ? 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY 


The  Discovery  of  these  forces  may  not  be  as  difficult  as  it  at  first  Discovery 
thought  appears.    To  many  the  true  facts  may  be  hidden  by  a  veil  of  not  so 
preconceived   ideas  based  upon   fallacies   and   accepted  "on  faith"  difficult  as 
from  pseudo-scientific  literature  written  by  the  mathematical  physi-  it  at  first 
cists  who  unfortunately  have  long  been  permitted  to  dominate  physi-  3PPears 
cal  science.    This  veil  is  getting  thinner  every  day  now. 

One  of  the  fallacies  woven  into  this  veil  is  that  subtle  one  which 
insinuates  that  energy  is  somehow  inherent  in  matter— an  endowment 
of  matter.  Physicists  have  not  yet  been  able  to  revise  their  concep- 
tions into  agreement  with  their  own  dictum  that 

"As  regards  matter,  the  fundamental  property  by  which  it  is  dis-  pftntine 
tinguished  is  that  of  inertia.    That  is  to  say,  if  any  portion  of  matter 
is  at  rest,  it  cannot  start  into  motion  without  the  action  upon  it  of  Pl 
some  external  force;  if  it  is  already  in  motion,  it  equally  cannot  alter  *orce 
its  velocity  or  direction  of  motion  without  the  action  of  an  external  does  not 
force.  Resistance  to  change  in  its  state  of  rest  or  of  motion  is  the  dwell  in 
fundamental  property  of  matter."     (Prof.  Hugh  Eliot,  in  "Modern  our  globe 
Science  and  Materialism.") 

"The  continent-making  forces  of  the  earth's  crust!"    This  term 
was  coined  when  the  geologist  was  contemplating  a  natural  phenome- 
non for  the  production  of  which  scientific  observation  and  reasoning 
had  discovered  no  exterior  cause  —  a  land-lifting  result  in  each  of  a 
series  of  Chilean  earthquakes.    Where  earthquakes  resulted  in  the  Nor  has 
subsidance  of  land,   an  exterior  force  —  gravitative  pressure  —  was  our  globe 
available  and  used  for  explanation  ;  but  in  the  case  of  land-uplift  such  a 
there  occurred  a  helpless  reversion  to  the  unscientific  notion  that  the  thing  as  a 
phenomenon  was  due  to  forces  dwelling  in  the  earth's  crust  itself.  cru$t 
Were  not  a  connection  between  the  ocean-tides  and  the  moon  so  obvi- 
ous that  mankind  discovered  it  several  thousand  years  ago,  we  might 
in  this  twentieth  century  still  read  about  "the  tide-producing  forces 
of  the  waters  of  the  ocean." 

A  second  important  aid  in  the  search  for  the  land-lifting  force  is 
rendered  by  the  scientific  conclusion  that  there  exists  no  such  thing 
as  a  crust  in  the  earth's  makeup.  A  number  of  years  ago  an  article  in 
the  Scientific  American,  commenting  on  the  researches  along  this  line 
of  Prof.  T.  J.  J.  See,  U.  S.  navy,  said: 

"By  considering  the  pressure  throughout  the  whole  earth,  it  is  Eartn  is 
found  that,  even  if  fluid,  our  globe  would  have  a  rigidity  greater  than  as  S0|jd  as 
that  of  wrought  iron.    The  earth's  matter  under  this  great  pressure   t    . 
acts  as  a  solid,  and  so  vibrates  in  an  earthquake ;  and  the  average  * 
rigidity  of  the  whole  mass  is  nearly  equal  to  that  of  nickel  steel,  such  n 
as  is  used  in  the  armor  of  a  battleship.    Nickel  steel  is  one  of  the 
strongest  and  hardest  metals  known,  and  it  affords  us  a  good  idea  of 
the  strength  and  rigidity  of  the  earth.    Our  globe  is  thus  proved  to  be 
capable  of  withstanding  enormous  strain;  and  we  need  have  no  fear 
that  earthquakes  or  volcanic  outbursts  will  ever  endanger  its  stability. " 

The  theory  long  held  by  geologists,  that  the  earth  is  a  globe  of 
molten  matter  inclosed  in  a  thin  crust,  like  the  shell  of  an  egg,  having 


10  THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT  -  MAKING  FORCES: 


No  limit  to  at  last  yielded  to  more  reasonable  ideas,  we  are  not  restricted,  in  a 
depth  at  search  for  the  continent-making  forces,  to  a  depth  of  but  a  few  miles 
which  we  below  the  earth's  surface.    According  to  Mr.  Gilbert,  these  forces 
)k  manifest  themselves  in  the  production  of  strains  in  the  earth's  mass, 
or     8  which  strains  are  susceptible  of  accumulation  and  final  collective  up- 
liftinj?  action-    The  theory  of  the  rigidity  of  the  earth  permits  us  to 
forces  £°  *°  tne  center  °f  tne  earth,  if  necessary,  in  search  of  these  strains 
and  their  causes. 

Both  the  forces  which  raise  and  those  which  depress  the  surface  of 
the  earth  must  be  considered  to  be  continent-making  forces.  But  here 
we  are  concerned  only  with  those  that  raise  by  uplift  on  a  considerable 
scale.  It  is  admitted  by  geologists  that  the  latter  are  comparatively  in- 
active and  feeble  in  the  present  period  of  the  earth's  geological  history. 

"There  may  be  great  terrestrial  revolutions  which  happen  so 
rarely  that  none  has  occurred  since  man  began  to  take  note  of  such 
things.  Among  these  revolutions  of  which  he  has  had  as  yet  no  expe- 
rience the  most  gigantic  is  the  formation  of  a  mountain-chain.  That 
the  various  mountain-chains  of  the  globe  are  of  very  different  ages, 
and  that  some  of  the  most  gigantic  of  them  are,  compared  with  others, 
of  recent  date,  are  facts  in  the  history  of  the  globe  .  .  .  ;  but  so  far 
as  human  history  goes,  man  has  never  witnessed  the  uprise  of  a  range 
of  mountains. "  (Geikie. ) 

Chile  a        This  slightly  contradicts  Geologist  Gilbert's  statement  given  above. 
promising  According  to  him,  there  is  one  region  on  our  globe  where  man  is  given 
region  for  opportunity  to  watch  nature  in  the  slow,  laborious,  groaning  task  of 
seismolog-  rearing  a  mountain-chain.    It  is  a  remarkable  opportunity,  not  dupli- 
icaJ  study  cated  anywhere  else  on  the  globe.    Can  this  process  justly  be  de- 
scribed  as   "relatively   insignificant   as   a   phenomenon   of   physical 
geography  "  ?  Does  it  not  rather  excite  the  keenest  curiosity  of  every 
lover  of  Nature  and  of  every  man  who  takes  delight  in  tracing  the 
foot-prints  of  the  Creator  ? 

Search  for  this  now  operative  continent-making  force  cannot  assume 
an  aspect  of  hopelessness, for  the  reason  that  the  force  operates  within  a 
region  of  limited  extent  —  the  narrow  southern  portion  of  the  South 
American  continent.  A  close  study  of  this  tract  of  our  globe  would 
seem  to  be  quite  possible  and  promise  to  show  peculiar  characteristics 
fit  to  serve  as  clues  for  the  solution  of  the  mystery. 

Naturs        As  the  forces  of  nature  are  unfailing,  the  Chilean  earthquake  de- 
produces  scribed  by  Mr.  Gilbert  was,  of  course,   an  inevitable  result  of  the 
strains  accumulation  of  strains,  and  it  cannot  well  be  scientific  to  speak  of 
in  her  the  earthquake  as  "an  incidental  result."    From  the  character  and 
'P  effect  of  the  quake  alone  can  we  deduct  conclusions  concerning  the 
m  nature  and  trend  of  the  forces  which  produced  the  strains  indicated. 
As  the  effect  of  the  quake  was  uplift,  the  force  which  produced  the 
strains  must  have  worked  in  the  same  direction.    Attaining  results 
by  means  of  cumulative  strains  produced  by  mallet,  hammer  or  sledge 
is  quite  a  common  procedure  in  our  workshops.    In  such  cases  the 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY  11 


taps  or  blows  are  always  applied  judiciously,  to  make  sure  that  the 
strains  accumulate  in  the  direction  of  the  contemplated  breaking- 
point.  The  last  tap  or  blow  which  brings  about  the  desired  yielding 
or  break  need  not  be  as  forceful  as  its  predecessors. 

It  must  be  admitted  to  be  reasonable,  therefore,  to  look  in  the  Chilean 
Chilean   earthquake   region   for   seismic   shocks   tending  to  lift  the  quakes 
region,  but  singly  not  strong  enough  to  do  more  than  produce  strain,  b 
and  to  assume  that  the  final  shock  which  brought  on  the  quake  was    or      , 
no  more  violent  or  obvious  than  those  which  produced  the   strain.  .<taDS» 
This  explains  why  the  violent  quakes  of  that  region  occur  without'  -m  ^a^ 
any   "provocation"  in  the  shape  of  something  unsusual  being  ob-  region 
servable  in  nature. 

Under  what  conditions  does  inanimate  Nature  perform  work  by 
means  of  strains  ?    Only  where  there  have  somehow  been  brought 
about  the  necessary  inequalities.  We  thus  see  Nature  produce  strains 
in  an  imperfectly  balanced  flywheel.    Each  revolution  of  such  a  wheel 
is  accompanied  by  a  ''hammer-blow  "  on  the  axle  or  bearings.     (In 
the  case  of  an  imperfect  wheel  rolling  swiftly  on  a  rail,  the  blow  is  w 
administered  to  the  rail.)    If  the  unbalance  is  not  remedied,  an  accu-  ejement0f 
mulation  of  strains  v/ill  result,  and  this  will  ultimately  find  relief  in  inequality 
the  bursting  of  the  wheel.    Where  the  wheel  revolves  very  slowly,   present  In 
the  force  of  gravitation  will  cause  acceleration  of  speed  when  the  Chilean 
heavy  part  approaches  the  earth,  and  retardation  of  speed  when  the  seismic 
heavy  part  recedes  from  the  earth.    This  adjustment  to  the  require-  situation 
ments  of  gravitative  force  prevents  disturbance  ;  but  where  rotation 
is  too  rapid  to  permit  of  acceleration  and  retardation,  trouble  occurs  ; 
and  the  faster  the  rotation,  the  more  violent  become  the  blows. 

If  we  now  examine  the  Chilean  earthquake  region  geographically, 
we  find  it  to  be  almost  opposite  the  greatest  protuberance  on  the  sur- 
face of  this  globe,  the  plateau  of  Tibet  and  the  Himalaya  mountains. 
The  Chilean  Andes  rise  practically  from  sea-level  between  the  20th  Almost 
and  40th  degrees  of  southern  latitude  and  in  about  longitude  70  west;   rf    ct'.y 
the  plateau  of  Tibet  and  the  Himalayas  attain  a  mean  altitude  of  £Ppo$ite 
nearly  20,000  feet,  between  the  20th  and  40th  degrees  of  northern   yjjj^nd 
latitude  and  between  the  60th  and  100th  degrees  of  longitude  east.         Himalaya 

Here  exists  one  of  those  inequalities  which   Nature  must  have  be-   fountains 
fore  she  can  produce  shocks  and  strains.  Here  there  is  a  difference  of 
four  miles  in  the  length  of  opposite  radii  of  the  earth. 

In  the  moon  we  have  the  requisite  gravitational  factor,  and  on  the 
part  of  the  earth  we  have  the  requisite  density,  rigidity  and  speed  of 
rotation,  for  the  production  of  shock  along  the  line  of  unbalance. 

It  may  be  objected  by  some  that,  in  proportion  to  the  diameter  of 
the  earth,  this  radial  difference  of  four  miles ,  is  too  small  to  produce 
any  such  effect  as  is  here  hinted  at.  To  this  I  answer  that  one  of  the 
very  objects  of  this  brochure  is  to  show  how  extremely  sensitive  are 
the  nerves  of  Nature  —  the  lines  or  threads  of  the  Fabric  of  Cosmic 


12  THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT  -  MAKING  FORCES 


Inequality  Energy.  True,  the  inequality  is  comparatively  small,  and  the  disturb- 

^  ing  gravitational  factor  is  small  and  remote.    But  note  the  extreme 

|^e  smallness  of  the  disturbance.    The  individual  shocks  which  produce 

,.    .  the  continent-making  strains  are  so  weak  that  they  have  so  far  es- 

caped identification  by  the  seismologists.    During  hundreds  of  years 

the  resultant  land-lifts  have  totalled  but  a  few  feet. 

The  demonstrations  furnished  by  gyrostats  will  serve  as  answers 
to  the  possible  objections  that  what  we  may  observe  in  a  flywheel 
rotating  in  fixed  bearings  cannot  apply  to  a  sphere  rotating  free  in 
space.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  weakness  of  the  earth-shocks 
is  partly  due  to  some  instability  and  flexibility  of  the  earth's  axis  of 
rotation. 

Inequality       Let  it  now  be  objected  that,  if  my  contention  is  correct,  then  the 
greatest  m  center  of  the  area  of  strain  and  seismic  upheaval  should  be  out  in  the 
Pacific  Pacific  ocean,  some  one  thousand  miles  west  of  the  coast  of  Chile, 
*n  because  that  spot  and  not  the  Chilean  coast  is  directly  opposite  the 
a  I  ^  Tibetan  protuberance,  and  there  the  difference  in  length  of  opposing 
'  radii  is  about  two  miles  greater,  inasmuch  as  the  Pacific  ocean  has  a 


Chile  coast  dePtn  there  of  about  10,000  feet. 

This  objection  I  am  courting,  for  we  have  indisputable  evidence 
that  the  bottom  of  the  Pacific  ocean  in  longitude  90  west  and  latitude 
30  south  is  subject  to  the  most  regular  and  occasionally  to  the  most 
violent  vertical  shocks  recorded  anywhere  on  the  earth. 

The  tremors  of  the  ocean-bottom  are  here  communicated  to  and 
isters  revealed  by  the  waters  of  the  ocean.     Tidal  waves  of  various  sizes 
of  Nature's  invariably  accompany  the  Chilean  and  Peruvian  earthquakes. 

tide-     A   fluid   responds   more  readily  to  impact  than  does  a  solid,  rigid 

producing  substance.     An  earth-tremor  which  is  imperceptible  to  any  of  our 

taps  senses  will  visibly  disturb  a  body  of  water.    The  qualities  of  incom- 

pressibility,  inelasticity  and  extreme  mobility  make  water  very  re- 

sponsive to  tremors,  shocks  and  tilts. 

"At  the  time  of  the  Lisbon  earthquake,  on  November  1,  1755,  the 
waters  of  Loch  Lomond  were  observed  to  rise  and  fall  every  five 
minutes  for  nearly  two  hours,  the  range  of  the  motion  amounting  to 
two  feet  six  inches.  Similar  motions  were  noticed  in  Lochs  Katrine 
and  Ness."  (Article  on  Seiches  in  Nelson's  L.  L.  Encyclopedia.) 

Prof.  George  H.  Darwin,  in  his  book  on  "Tides  and  Kindred  Phe- 
nomena in  the  Solar  System,"  very  properly  says: 

In  search        "Some,  and  perhaps  many,  seiches  are  due  to  the  tilting  of  the 

for  whole  lake-bed  by  minute  earthquakes.    Modern  investigations  seem 

continent-  to  show  that  this  is  a  more  fertile  cause  than  Forel  was  disposed  to 

rnakin^  a^ow,  and  it  would  therefore  be  interesting  to  see  the  investigation 

fn     "  of  seiches  repeated  with  the  aid  of  delicate  instruments  for  the  study 

«*,  must  of  earthquakes." 

be  studied        A  study  of  the  tidal  waves  accompanying  the  earthquakes  of  Chile 
and  Peru  cannot  be  dispensed  with  in  a  search  for  the  continent- 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY  13 


making  forces.   And  for  purposes  of  such  study  the  largest  specimen  fcreatest 

available  must  serve  best.  Sea-Wave 

The  tidal  wave  which  accompanied  the  Peruvian  earthquake  of  ^ 

August  13,  1868,  was  by  Richard  A.  Proctor,  the  English  astronomer,  t! 

called   "the  greatest  sea-wave   ever   known."    Fortunately  he   has  stu(jv 
transmitted  down  to  us  an  exhaustive  description  of  it. 

"The  progress  of  the  great  sea- wave  which  was  generated  by  the 
upheaval  of  the  Peruvian  shores  and  propagated  over  the  whole  of 
the  Pacific  ocean  differs  altogether  from  any  earthquake  phenomenon 
before  observed.  Other  earthquakes  have  indeed  been  followed  by 
oceanic  disturbances;  but  these  have  been  accompanied  by  terrestrial 
motions,  so  as  to  suggest  the  idea  that  they  had  been  caused  by  the 
motion  of  the  sea-bottom,  or  of  the  neighboring  land.  In  no  instance 
has  it  ever  before  been  known  that  a  well-marked  wave  of  enormous 
proportions  should  have  been  propagated  over  the  largest  ocean-tract 
on  our  globe,  by  an  earth-shock  whose  direct  action  was  limited  to  a 
relatively  emcul  region,  and  that  region  not  situated  in  the  center, 
bat  on  one  side  of  the  wide  area  traversed  by  the  wave.'1 

In  the  course  of  my  argument  it  will  become  apparent  that  tidal 
waves  bearing  the  characteristics  here  described,  except  the  size,  are 
the  rule  and  not  the  exception  —  that  with  respect  to  what  Proctor 
pointed  out  as  a  singularity  this  mammoth  wave  was  typical  of  the 
regular  tidal  waves  which  daily  traverse  the  oceans. 

If  Mr.  Proctor  meant  to  tell  us  in  the  above  sentences  that  the 
motions  of  the  Peruvian  shores  and  not  of  the  sea-bottom  produced 
the  huge  wave,  then  he  contradicted  himself  later  on.  In  the  course 
of  his  essay  he  wrote: 

"The  northerly  shore-wave  seems  to  have  been  more  considerable;  Originated 
and  a  moment's  study  of  a  chart  of  the  two  Americas  will  show  that  in 
this  circumstance  is  highly  significant.    When  we  remember  that  the  antipodes 
principal  effects  of  the  land-shock  were  experienced  within  the  angle  Of  Tibetan 
which  the  Peruvian  Andes  form  with  the  long  north-and-south  line  of 
the  Chilean'  and  Bolivian  Andes,  we  see  at  once  that,  had  the  center 
of  the  subterranean  action  been  near  the  scene  where  the  most  de- 
structive effects  were  perceived,  no  sea-wave,  or  but  a  small  one, 
could  have  been  sent  toward  the  shores  of  North  America.    The  pro- 
jecting shores  of  northern  Peru  and  Ecuador  could  not  have  failed  to 
divert  the  sea-wave  toward  the  west ;  and  though  a  reflected  wave 
might  have  reached  California,  it  would  only  have  been  after  a  con- 
siderable interval  of  time  and  with  dimensions  much  less  than  those 
which  traveled  southward.     When  we  see  that,   on  the  contrary,  a 
wave  of   even  greater  proportions  traveled    toward    the    shores   of 
North  America,  we  seem  forced  to  the   conclusion  that  the  center  of 
the  subterranean  action  'must   have  been  so  far  to  the  west  that  the 
sea-wave  generated  by  it  had  a  free  course  to  the  shores  of  California. ' ' 

If  the  center  of  the  subterranean  action  was  in  a  southwesterly 
direction  from  the  shore-angle  referred  to,  a  path  is  opened  for  a 
wave  toward  the  California!!  coast  without  going  very  far  to  the  west. 
As  will  be  shown  later  on,  there  is  strong  reason  for  the  belief  that 
said  center  was  near  longitude  90  west  and  latitude  30  south  —  the 
tract  directly  opposite  the  Tibetan  plateau. 


14 


THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT  -  MAKING  FORCES 


To  produce 

the  wave, 

water  had 

to  be  first 

withdrawn 

from  a 

vast  area 

of  ocean 


Even 

Australia 

had  to 

furnish  its 

quota 


Professor  Proctor's  essay  furnishes  further  proof  that  the  center 
of  subterranean  action  was  out  in  the  Pacific  ocean: 

"AtArica  the  sea-wave  produced  even  more  destructive  effects 
than  had  been  caused  by  the  earthquake.  About  twenty  minutes  after 
the  first  earth-shock,  the  sea  was  seen  to  retire,  as  if  about  to  leave 
the  shores  wholly  dry;  but  presently  its  waters  returned  with  tre- 
mendous force.  A  mighty  wave,  whose  length  seemed  immeasurable, 
was  seen  advancing  like  a  dark  wall  upon  the  unfortunate  town,  a 
large  part  of  which  was  overwhelmed  by  it." 

"At  Callao  a  yet  more  singular  instance  was  afforded  of  the  effect 
which  circumstances  may  have  upon  the  motion  of  the  sea  after  a 
great  earthquake  has  disturbed  it.  In  former  earthquakes  Callao  had 
suffered  terribly  from  the  effects  of  the  great  sea-wave.  .  .  .  But  upon 
this  occasion  the  center  of  subterranean  disturbance  must  have  been 
so  situated  that  .  .  .  .  ,  although  the  water  retreated  strangely  from 
the  coast  near  Callao,  insomuch  that  a  wide  tract  of  the  sea-bottom 
was  uncovered,  there  was  no  inrushing  wave  comparable  with  those 
described  above Six  hours  after  the  occurrence  of  the  earth- 
shock  ....  three  considerable  waves  rolled  in  upon  the  town.  But 
clearly  these  waves  must  not  be  compared  with  those  which  in  other 
instances  had  made  their  appearance  within  half  an  hour  of  the  earth- 
throes." 

"At  about  half -past  three  on  the  morning  of  August  14th,  the 
water  began  to  retreat  in  a  singular  manner  from  the  port  of  Little- 
ton, on  the  eastern  shores  of  the  southernmost  of  the  New  Zealand 
islands.  At  length  the  whole  port  was  left  entirely  dry,  and  so  re- 
mained for  about  twenty  minutes. ' ' 

Figure  1  depicts  the  cause  of  a  withdrawal  of  water  from  parts 
of  the  ocean. 


FIG.  1 

The  retirement  of  the  sea  as  long  as  nine  hours  after  the  shock 
indicates  a  tremendous  drawing-together  and  piling-up  of  the  water 
of  the  ocean  somewhere.  And  the  fact  that  the  retirement  took  place 
within  twenty  minutes  after  the  shock  on  the  coast  of  Chile  and  nine 
hours  after  the  shock  at  New  Zealand  indicates  that  the  center  of 
the  shock  was  proportionately  much  nearer  to  the  Chilean  coast  than 
to  New  Zealand  —  so  near  to  the  former,  in  fact,  that,  because  of  its 
proximity,  most  of  the  elevated  water  had  to  be  drawn  from  the  west. 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY 


The  east-bound  wave  which  rolled  in  upon  some  of  the  Peruvian 
and  Chilean  coast-towns  is  described  as  having  been  fifty  feet  high, 
and  the  west-bound  wave  as  having  been  from  200  to  1,000  miles  wide 
and  its  length  to  have  extended  from  one  side  to  the  other  of  the 
great  ocean.  The  height  of  the  west-bound  wave  in  mid-ocean  was 
indeterminable ;  but  its  vast  other  dimensions  represented  an  enor- 
mous volume  of  water.  As  far  away  as  the  coast  of  California,  the 
wave  is  said  to  have  been  sixty  feet  high. 

Such  a  wave  must  have  come  from  the  region  where  the  upheav- 
ing continent-making  forces  are  at  work  of  which  Mr.  Gilbert  wrote. 
It  must  have  been  the  result  of  one  of  those  upheavals  which  period- 
ically relieve  an  accumulation  of  earth-strains.  Perhaps  its  tract  of 
origin  —  "a  relatively  small  region  ...  on  one  side  of  the  wide  area 
traversed  by  the  wave  "  marks  the  region  where  the  strain-producing 
hammer-blows  of  the  continent-making  forces  do  their  best  work.  It 
may  be  possible  to  discern  evidences  there  of  these  tappings  of  Nature. 

Since  the  cumulative  effect  of  the  blows  or  throes  is  a  gigantic 
tidal  wave,  why  should  not  the  single  blows  or  throes  produce  small 
tidal  waves  ? 

Tidal  waves  there  are  on  the  oceans,  plenty  of  them.  Observation 
has,  however,  determined  that  there  are  two  main  daily  tides.  These 
tides  having  been  platted  and  described  by  conscientious  scientists  who 
loved  facts  more  than  theory,  we  are  enabled  to  study  them  closely. 

Figure  2  is  a  reproduction  of  a  map  of  cotidal  lines  found  in  Guyot's 
Physical  Geography.  The  same  map  was  used  by  Prof.  Simon  New- 
comb  in  connection  with  his  writings  on  the  tides.  It  was  first  drawn, 
I  believe,  by  Sir  George  Airy,  an  eminent  English  astronomer. 

On  this  map,  lines  are  drawn  connecting  all  those  places  which 
are  reached  by  a  given  wave  at  the  same  hour  of  absolute  time.  The 
cotidal  lines  are  drawn  at  intervals  of  one  hour.  The  arrows  are  in- 
serted by  the  writer,  to  visualize  conditions  hitherto  either  ignored  or 
explained  away. 

We  will  let  Prof.  Elias  Loomis,  erstwhile  of  Yale  college,  who  used 
a  skeleton  of  this  map  in  his  Treatise  on  Astronomy,  tell  us  what  the 
map  reveals  : 

"  By  inspecting  the  map,  we  perceive  that  the  great  tidal  wave 
originates  in  the  Pacific  ocean,  not  far  from  the  western  coast  of 
South  America,  in  which  region  high  water  occurs  about  two  hours 
after  the  moon  has  passed  the  meridian." 

"  The  wave  of  high  water,  first  raised  near  the  western  coast  of 
South  America,  travels  toward  the  northwest  through  the  deep  water 
of  the  Pacific  at  the  rate  of  850  miles  per  hour." 

"The  tidal  wave  which  we  have  thus  traced  through  oceans,  bays 
and  rivers  has  every  variety  of  direction  ;  in  some  places  advancing 
westward,  and  in  others  eastward  ;  in  some  places  northward,  and  in 
others  southward ;  but  in  each  case  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  continu- 
ous forward  movement,  and  the  change  in  its  direction  results  from  a 
change  in  the  direction  of  the  channel.  But  there  is  one  exception  to 


Wave  the 
result  of  a 
tifting-up 
ef  water 
by  vertical 
seismic 
shock 
attended 
by  relief  of 
strain 


In  same 
tract  we 
may  look 
for 

high  water 
raised  by 
Nature's 
strain- 
producing 
" taps  " 


Maps  of 
cotidal 
lines 

show  that 
the  main 
daily  tide 
originates 
in  this 
tract 


16 


THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT  -  MAKING  FORCES 


Testimony  this  general  rule.     We  have  traced  the  origin  of  the  tidal  wave  to  a 

of  region  about  1,000  miles  west  of  the  coast  of  South  America.    From 

Prof  Ellas  this  point  high  water  is  not  only  propagated  westward  around  the 

Loomis  ffl°be,  but  also  eastward  toward  Cape  Horn.  In  this  region  the  motion 

of  the  tidal  wave  appears  to  be  similar  to  that  of  the  wave  produced 

by  throwing  a  stone  upon  the  surface  of  a  tranquil  lake,  the  wave 

traveling  off  in  all  directions  from  the  first  point  of  disturbance." 

The  regular  daily  tides  have  their  origin  in  the  Pacific  ocean  about 
1,000  miles  west  of  the  coast  of  South  America.  This  fact  was  established 
and  published  by  scientists  into  whose  theories  it  did 
not  fit  at  all,  which  is  proof  of  the  obviousness  and  un- 
deniability  of  their  findings. 

In  this  tract  of  origin  we  behold,  not  a  wave,  but 
high  water  —  a  lifting  of  the  water  above  the  normal 

CONTOUR    or  THE 
SURFACE   OTTHE  EARTH 


Orl     1-HI- 

3o*   «•'• 


4° 


;  VI  »M*        O     AH  6 


$oufM   AME.^ICA 

•\o2  go  30 


level.    This  phenomenon  is  repeated  every  day,  about  two  hours  after 
the  moon  has  passed  the  meridian. 

High  watef        Every  day,  about  two  hours  after  the  moon  has  passed  over  the 
two  hours  center  of  the  tract,  an  earth-shock  is  here  communicated  to  the  water 
alter  the  of  the  ocean  and  lifts  it  above  the  normal  level.    Here,  directly  oppo- 
15  site  the  Tibetan  plateau,  there  is  enacted  daily  a  small-scale  repeti- 
tion  °f  the  occurrence  wnich  produced,  fifty-two  years  ago,  in  exactly 
the   same   area,  what   Proctor  called   "the  greatest  sea- wave  ever 
known,"  and  183  years  ago  (October  6,  1737)  what  Nelson's  Encyclo- 
pedia speaks  of  as  "the  greatest  sea-wave  on  record." 

The  map  records  several  other  things  which  assume  great  signific- 
ance when  the  true  cause  of  tppi-production  is  recognized,  but  which 
have  hitherto  been  ignored.  ~h<fo~ 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY 


17 


For  instance,  the  map  shows  that  not  only  is  a  wave  propagated  Small  wave 
eastward  to  and  slightly  beyond  Cape  Horn,  but  a  small  wave  starts  goes  east 
away  from  the  coast  of  southern  Argentina.    This  wave  does  not  go  from  coast 
far,   however.     Together  with  the  wave  which  comes  eastward  and  °'  southern 
rounds  Cape  Horn,   it  is  soon  merged  with  a  wave  which,  after  a  AfS8ntina 
forty-eight  hours'  journey  almost  around  the  world,  reaches   Cape 
Horn  from  the  South  Atlantic  ocean.    Here,  every  day,  the  oldest  of 
three  tidal  waves  which  for  several  hours  are  on  the  oceans  at  the 
same  time  dies  in  the  arms  of  the  youngest  wave. 

Short-lived  though  it  may  be,  the  wave  which  comes 
out  of  Saint  George's  Bay,  in  southern  Argentina,  pro- 
claims that  an  earth-tremor  has  crossed  that  narrow 
portion  of  South  America  from  the  west  or  northwest. 

IT   CONSTITUTES  AN  INVITATION  TO   THE  Natwt 
SCIENTIFIC  WORLD   TO   BRING  THEIR    "DEL-  here 


ICATE    INSTRUMENTS    FOR    THE    STUDY    OF 
EARTHQUAKES"    AND    OBTAIN    THE    AUTO- 


beckons  ta 


30      «|0 


15  o  |<|o  l*jo  ISo  «io  »»o  <JO 

GRAPHS  OF   THE  TIDE -PRODUCING,  CONTINENT- MAKING 
FORCES  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 

In  the  current  literature  on  earthquakes  there  are  found  many 
statements  which  encourage  the  belief  that  the  scientific  world  will 
deem  reasonable  the  request  that  the  suggested  seismological  obser- 
vations in  the  region  of  tide-origin  be  made.  Writing  on  earthquakes 
for  Nelson's  Encyclopedia,  one  authority  says  : 

"A  daily  periodicity  has  been  made  out ;  but  there  is  no  clear  evi- 
dence that  the  moon  has  any  influence  upon  the  occurrence  of  earth- 
quakes. Since  earthquakes  must  be  due  to  an  instability  in  the  earth's 
crust,  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  this  instability  to  be  influenced  by 
tide-producing  forces  such  as  might  result  from  the  moon's  gravita- 
tion action." 


Scwaci 

•in 

within 
sight  of 
the  truth 


18  THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT- MAKING  FORCES: 


Professor  Proctor's  description  of  the  great  sea-wave  shows  that 
°*  in  its  general  movements  this  wave  conformed  to  the  movements  of 

**  the  diurnal  tides  as  charted  on  the  map  (Fig.  2) : 
wave 

pictured       «<in  somewhat  less  than  three  hours  after  the  occurrence  of  the 

move-  earthquake,  the  ocean-wave  inundated  the  port  of  Coquimbo,  on  the 

ments  ef  Chilean  seaboard,  some  800  miles  from  Arica.    An  hour  or  so  later  it 

(tally  wave  had  reached  Constitucion,  450  miles  farther  south  ;  and  here  for  some 

three  hours   the  sea  rose  and  fell  with   strange  violence.    Farther 

south,  along  the  shore  of  Chile,  even  to  the  island  of   Chiloe,  the 

shore-wave  traveled,  though  with  continually  diminishing  force.  .  .  . 

* '  The  northerly  shore-wave  seems  to  have  been  more  considerable. 
....  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  wave  which  swept  the  shores 
of  Southern  California,  rising  upward  of  sixty  feet  above  the  ordinary 
sea-level,  was  absolutely  the  most  imposing  of  all  the  indirect  effects 
of  the  great  earthquake.  When  we  consider  that  even  in  San  Pedro 
Bay,  fully  5,000  miles  from  the  center  of  disturbance,  a  wave  twice 
the  height  of  an  ordinary  house  rolled  in  with  unspeakable  violence 
only  a  few  hours  after  the  occurrence  of  the  earth-throe,  we  are  most 
strikingly  impressed  with  the  tremendous  energy  of  the  earth's  move- 
ment  

"At  Yokohama,  in  Japan,  more  than  10,500  miles  from  Arica,  an 
enormous  wave  poured  in  on  August  14th,  but  at  what  hour  we  have 
no  satisfactory  record.  So  far  as  distance  is  concerned,  this  wave 
affords  most  surprising  evidence  of  the  stupendous  nature  of  the  dis- 
turbance to  which  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  had  been  subjected. 
The  whole  circumference  of  the  earth  is  but  25,000  miles,  so  that  this 
wave  had  traveled  over  a  distance  considerably  greater  than  two-fifths 
of  the  earth's  circumference " 

!» and  jt  js  evident  from  this  description,  which  could  be  quoted  more  ex- 
I  nort  s^tensively  to  the  same  effect,  that  the  westward  and  northwestward 
cy  progress  of  this  wave  was  far  more  rapid,  and  carried  a  far  greater 
v  ___  volume  of  water,  than  its  eastward  and  southeastward  progress, 
pounced  In  the  course  of  his  essay,  Professor  Proctor  ventured  the  opinion 
"that  if  the  surface  of  the  earth  were  all  sea,  waves  setting  out  in 
opposite  directions  from  the  center  of  disturbance  would  have  met 
each  other  at  the  antipodes  of  their  starting-point/'  The  above  cita- 
tions from  the  essay  argue  conclusively  against  such  an  inference. 
They  show  that  the  wave  required  nearly  three  hours  to  reach  the 
Chilean  coast  at  Coquimbo,  and  four  hours  to  reach  that  coast  at 
Constitucion,  both  of  which  places  were  situated  but  a  few  hundred 
miles  east  and  southeast  from  the  eastern  edge  of  the  tract  of  high 
water  created  by  the  earthquake.  And  notwithstanding  the  admitted 
extreme  proximity  of  the  Peruvian  and  Chilean  seaboards  to  the  focus 
of  the  seismic  disturbance,  no  wave  exceeding  fifty  feet  in  height  is 
recorded  to  have  reached  either  seaboard.  The  wave  traveled  toward 
Cape  Horn  "with  continually  diminishing  force, "  and  there  is  no 
record  of  its  having  gone  any  distance  to  the  east  of  that  cape.  In  its 
northwestward  journey,  on  the  other  hand,  the  wave  carried  sixty 
feet  of  water  to  the  distant  shores  of  Southern  California,  and  arrived 
in  Japan,  10,500  miles  away,  within  less  than  twenty-four  (probably 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY 


19 


less  than  twelve)  hours.  The  great  sea-wave  of  October  6,  1737,  which 
originated  in  the  same  tract,  is  said  to  have  broken  near  Cape  Lopatka, 
at  the  southern  end  of  Kamchatka,  210  feet  in  height,  yet  it  left  no 
record  of  extreme  size  or  violence  on  the  east  of  the  tract  of  origin. 


Airy'  map 
ofcetidal 
lines 


On  a  smaller  scale,  these  are  the  characteristics  of  the  regular 
daily  tidal  waves.  Says  Professor  Loomis  : 


20 


THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT- MAKING  FORCES: 


"The  wave  of  high  water,  first  raised  near  the  western  coast  of 
South  America,  travels  toward  the  northwest  through  the  deep  water 
of  the  Pacific  at  the  rate  of  850  miles  per  hour,  and  in  about  ten  hours 
reaches  the  coast  of  Kamchatka.  On  account  of  more  shallow  water, 
the  same  wave  travels  westward  and  southwestward  with  less  velocity, 
and  it  is  about  twelve  hours  old  when  it  reaches  New  Zealand,  having 
advanced  at  the  rate  of  about  400  miles  per  hour.  Passing  south  of 
Australia,  the  tidal  wave  travels  westward  and  northward  into  the 
Indian  Ocean,  and  is  twenty  -nine  hours  old  when  it  reaches  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope." 

The  enormously  preponderating  northwestward  rush  of  every  tidal 
westerly  wave  which  originates  in  the  tract  described  is  the  composite  result 


rush  of        The  cause  of  the  westward  tendency  is  illustrated  by  Fig.  3.  Being 

the  wave  raised  above  the  normal  sea-level,  the  elevated  body  of  water  cannot 

keep  up  with  the  earth's  rotation,  which  on  the  equator  has  a  speed 


FIG.  3 

of  about  1,000  miles  per  hour  and  in  latitudes  30  a  speed  of  about  650 
miles  per  hour,  and  is  from  west  to  east.  This  inability  to  continue 
eastward  with  the  main  body  of  water  gives  the  elevated  body  of 
water  the  character  of  a  westward-moving  wave.  For  a  compara- 
tively short  distance,  a  portion  of  the  elevated  water  .is  carried  east- 
ward by  the  momentum  which  it  had  before  it  was  thrown  up.  That 
its  westward  movement  nowhere  fully  equals  the  eastward  movement 
of  the  main  body  of  water  is  due  to  the  friction  incident  to  the  oppo- 
site movements  of  the  two  bodies  of  water.  This  friction  is  greater 
over  shallow  water  than  over  deep  water,  and  it  is  therefore  over 
shallow  water  especially  that  the  wave  assumes  the  shape  pictured 
in  Fig.  3.  To  again  quote  from  Proctor's  essa.y : 

Semathmg        "The  eminent   physicist   Mallet  speaks  thus   (we  follow  LyelPs 

moves  ta  quotation)  about  the  waves  which  traverse  an  open  sea:  'The  great 

opposite  sea-wave,  advancing  at  the  rate  of  several  miles  in  a  minute,  consists, 

direction  m  the  deep  ocean,  of  a  long,  low  swell  of  enormous  volume,  having 

underneath  an  ecluai  slope   before  and  behind,  and  that  so  gentle  that  it  might 

pass  under  a  ship  without  being  noticed.    But  when  it  reaches  the 

edge  of  soundings,  its  front  slope  becomes  short  and  steep,  while  its 

rear  slope  is  long  and  gentle  V 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY 


21 


That  the  wave  which  passes  south  of  New  Zealand  and  Australia 
has  a  speed  of  only  400  miles  per  hour  is  not  due  to  shallowness  of 
the  ocean,  but  to  the  fact  that  in  that  latitude  the  speed  of  the 
earth's  motion  from  west  to  east  is  less  than  500  miles  per  hour. 

Were  it  not  for  the  earth's  rapid  rotation,  there  would  be  no 
vertical  earth-shocks  and  consequently  no  tidal  waves  ;  but  if  a  tract 
of  high  water  could  be  produced  on  an  ocean  of  a  non-rotating, 


Strong 
northward 
trend  of 
high  water 
from  tract 
of  uplift 


FIG.  4 

perfectly  symmetrical  earth,  then,  and  then  only,  would  the  ele- 
vated water  flow  off  evenly  in  all  directions.  It  is  safe  to  say,  how- 
ever, that  the  resultant  wave  would  nowhere  attain  anything  like  the 
speed  displayed  by  the  tidal  waves  on  the  rotating  earth. 

The  pronounced  northerly  tendency  of  the  tidal  wave  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  southern  hemisphere  is  considerably  lighter  than  the 


22  THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT -MAKING  FORCES: 


Due  to  northern,  and   the   earth's   axis   is   consequently   less  stable  in  the 
lesser  southern  hemisphere  than  in  the  northern.    The  tide-producing  earth- 
D  throes,  arising,  as  will  be  shown  later,  from  a  violent  shifting  of  the 
earth's  center  (or  centers)  of  gravity,  disturb  the  earth's  axis,  but 
the   southern  half   of   the  axis  responds  to  the  shocks  much  more 
readily  than  the  northern  half.    This  tends  to  throw  northward  the 
water  which  is  lifted  up  when  the  shock  reaches  the  surface  of  the 
solid  portion  of  the  earth. 

How  pronounced  this  northward  thrust  is  may  be  learned  from 
Fig.  4.  The  tract  of  high  water  from  which  the  tidal  wave  proceeds 
has  never  been  observed  as  circular.  It  assumes  an  oblong  shape  at 
once,  extending  north  from  the  point  of  origin. 

Northerly       The  map  of  cotidal  lines  (Fig.  2)  shows  the  northward  trend  of 
trend  very  the  tidal  wave  to  be  very  persistent.  That  portion  of  it  which  at  first 
persistent  j9  forced  by  circumstances  to  travel  southwestward  and  pass  New 
Zealand  and  Australia  to  the  south  turns  sharply  northward  as  soon 
as  opportunity  offers,  a  part  of  it  making  for  the  point  of  the  penin- 
sula of  India  and  most  of  the  remainder  turning  into  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  stopping  in  its  northward  march  only  when  compelled  to  by 
the  icy  barriers  of  the  Arctic  regions. 

Tide-        As  said  before,  the  tidal  wave  is  the  product  of  vertical  waves  in 
producing  the    solid    earth    due    to   a    violent    shifting   of    the   earth's  center 
sh ock  due  Of  gravity .  Professor  Loomis  tells  us  that  high  water  occurs  in  the 
'^  tract  of  tide  origin  two  hours  after  the  moon  h9s  passed  the  me- 
"J?   ridian  ;  in  other  words,  two  hours  after  the  moon  was  over  the  center 
,       ,  of  the  tract  of  tide-origin  and  directly  opposite  the  Tibetan  plateau. 
gravity  ^s  ^le  ^enavi°r  °f  the  tidal  wave  testifies  to  a  disturbance  of  the 
earth's  axis  of   rotation  incident  to  the  shifting  of   the  center  of 
gravity,   the  tide-producing  earth- tremors   must   be  produced  in  or 
near  that  axis  and  proceed  thence  to  the  surface  of  the  globe.    The 
radii  of  the  earth  are  approximately  4,000  miles  in  length,  and  verti- 
cal seismic  waves  have,  according  to  Humboldt,  a  speed  of  about 
Seismfc  thirty  miles  per  minute.  The  tide-producing  earth-waves  do  therefore 
waves  require  nearly  two  hours  to  travel  from  the  center  of  the  earth  to  its 
require  surface  (and  my  theory  may  help  to  ascertain  what  the  speed  of 
urs  vertical  seismic  waves  really  is).    The  shift  of  the  center  of  gravity 
0        e.  must,   to  agree  with  my  doctrine  of  the  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy, 
of  gravity  occur  immediately  after  the  center  of  gravity,  which  lies  outside  of 
to  surface  tne  ax*s  °^  rotation  in  the  direction  of  the  Tibetan  protuberance,  has 
reached  its  maximum  distance  from  the  moon  ;  in  other  words,  im- 
mediately after  the  center  of  the  moon  has  crossed  the  meridian  of 
the  center  of  the  tract  of  tide  origin.    Two  hours  later  the  water 
rises. 

A  violent  shifting  of  the  center  of  gravity  and  tilting  of  the  axis 
of  the  earth,  such  as  tide-production  and  the  earthquakes  which  from 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY  23 


time  to  time  accompany  them  demonstrate,  calls  for  a  coupling  be- 
tween the  earth  and  the  moon  far  more  substantial  and  tenacious 
than  any  which  an  extremely  rarefied  gas  could  furnish,  such  as  the 
ether  is  pictured  to  be.  Prof.  Charles  R.  Gibson  argued  better  than 
he  knew  when  he  wrote,  in  "Wireless  Telegraphy  and  Telephony": 

"  There  must  be  some  substantial  coupling  between  the  earth  and  Coupling 
the  moon.  We  see  the  moon  making  continual  monthly  journeys  between 
around  the  earth,  and  a  simple  calculation  tells  us  that  her  speed  is  8artb  and 
about  fifty  miles  per  minute.  Her  natural  tendency  is  to  movve  in  a 
straight  line,  and  it  requires  a  gigantic  force  to  pull  such  a  huge 
mass  of  matter  away  from  its  normally  straight  path.  We  know  that  *  f 
the  gravitative  pull  of  the  earth  keeps  the  moon  tethered.  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge  has  calculated  what  material  thing  would  be  required  to  tether 
the  moon  to  the  earth,  and  having  arrived  at  a  great  array  of  fig- 
ures, he  puts  the  result  into  the  following  picture  :  '  The  force  with 
which  the  moon  is  held  in  its  orbit  would  be  great  enough  to  tear 
asunder  a  steel  rod  four  hundred  miles  thick,  with  a  tenacity  of 
thirty  tons  per  square  inch ;  so  that  if  the  moon  and  earth  were  con- 
nected by  steel  instead  of  gravity,  a  forest  of  pillars  would  be  nec- 
essary to  whirl  the  system  once  a  month  round  their  common  center 
of  gravity." 

No  space-filling  medium  which  consists  of  detached  and  widely 
separated  particles  of  matter  can  supply  this  coupling.  Continuity 
and  tenacity,  in  addition  to  great  quantity,  must  be  characteristics 
of  the  medium  of  gravitation. 

There  are  two  forces   in  the  universe  which  are  very  similar  in  Attraction 
their  operation— so  similar,  in  fact,  that  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to 
determine  to  which  of  them  observed  effects  should  be  ascribed.    These 
forces  are  gravitation  and  magnetism.*    Erroneously  in  the  case  of 
both,  the  manner  of  their  operation  is  being  called  attraction.* -I- 

*  As  calling  attention  to  the  vagueness  of  the  boundary  between  gravitation  and  magnetism,  the 
following  is  quoted  from  an  appendix  to  R.  A.  Proctor's  "Saturn  and  Its  System": 

"The  planetary  system  presents  certain  points  of  uniformity  for  which  the  lav/  of  gravity  does 
not  account;  thus:  —  The  planets  revolve  in  the  same  direction  around  the  sun.  in  orbits  nearly  circu- 
lar, and  nearly  in  one  plane;  they  also  rotate  on  their  axes,  and  their  satellites  (exceytir.gr  those  of 
Uranus,  and  possibly  Neptune's  satellite)  revolve,  in  the  same  direction;  all  the  known  asteroids  re- 
volve in  the  same  direction.  That  this  uniformity  is  not  the  effect  of  chance  will  appear  from  a  single 
example:  The  probability  that  the  83  known  asteroids,  if  projected  in  the  sarre  piare  but  otherwise  at 
random,  should  all  revolve  in  one  direction,  is  less  than  1  in  4,835,700,000,000,000,000,000,000." 

**  Because  it  is  unreasonable  and  inconceivable,  even  Sir  Isaac  Newton  took  care  to  disavow  un- 
qualified endorsement  of  the  attraction-theory  of  gravitation.  In  his  treatise  on  "Optics,"  Newton 
wrote: 

"How  these  attractions  [of  gravity,  magnetism  and  electricity]  may  be  performed,  I  do  not  here 
consider.  What  I  call  attraction  may  be  performed  by  impulse  or  by  some  ol.her  means  unknown  to 
me.  I  use  that  word  here  to  signify  only  in  a  general  way  any  force  by  which  bodies  tend  toward  each 
other,  whatever  be  the  cause." 

Thomas  H.  Huxley  said  in  one  of  his  magazine  articles: 

"Anyone  who  will  look  into  the  'Principia,'  or  the  'Optics,'  or  the  'Letters  to  Rentlcy,'  will  see, 
even  if  he  has  no  more  special  knowledge  of  the  topics  discussed  than  I  have,  that  Newton  ovf-r  and 
over  again  insisted  that  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  gravitation  as  a  physical  cause,  and  that,  when  he 
used  the  terms  attraction,  force  and  the  like,  he  employed  them,  es  he  says,  'mathematice.'  and  not 
'physice.'  ....  According  to  my  reading  of  the  best  authorities  upon  the  history  of  science,  Newton 
discovered  neither  gravitation  nor  the  laws  of  gravitation;  nor  did  he  pretend  to  offer  more  than  a 
conjecture  as  to  the  causation  of  gravitation.  Moreover,  his  assertion  that  the  notion  of  a  body  acting 
where  it  is  not  is  one  that  no  competent  thinker  could  entertain,  is  antagonistic  to  the  whole  current 
conception  of  attractive  and  repulsive  forces  and  therefore  of  'the  attractive  force  of  gravitation'." 


24  THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT  -  MAKING  FORCES: 


Gravity,        jt  is  a  part  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy  that 
m  gravitation,  magnetism  and  electricity  are  but  different  manifesta- 
tions of  the  same  agency— a  dense  fabric  of  lines  traveling  in  closed 

,    paths  of  immeasurable  extent  at  a  normal  speed  of  186,000  miles  per 

closely  r 

related  second. 

These  rays  or  lines  of  force  are  retarded  in  the  course  of  their 
passage  throngh  a  body  of  matter.  The  amount  of  resistance  offered 
their  pasgage  depends  upon  the  atomic  structure  of  the  body  and 
determines  the  specific  gravity  of  the  body.  The  rays  emerge  from 
a  material  body  with  less  speed  and  force  than  they  possessed  when 
they  entered  the  body.  Between  two  material  bodies  close  together 
there  is  therefore  less  dynamic  force  than  in  the  rest  of  the  fabric  of 
force,  and  the  faster  and  more  dynamic  rays  of  free  space  tend 
to  drive  the  bodies  together.  This  is  the  force  of  gravitation,  which 
affects  all  material  objects  impartially.  All  of  the  Newtonian  laws  of 
gravitation  are  applicable  to  it. 

Strains  in        Magnetism  and  electricity  are  special  and  more  intense  strains  in 
Fabric  of  the  network  of  lines  of  force.  They,  however,  need  not  be  considered 

Cosmic  here  Suffice  it  to  gay  that  all  three  of  the  fabric's  manifestations 
iergy  owe  their  irresistible  power  to  the  enormous  inherent  speed  of  the 
rays  or  threads  and  to  the  fact  that,  while  the  threads  may  be  dis- 
torted, twisted  and  strained,  their  continuity  cannot  be  broken  nor 
their  progress  altogether  arrested.  While  attempts  to  do  so  are 
giving  us  the  benefit  of  electric  light  and  power,  the  operation  in- 
volves a  well  known  element  of  danger. 

In  a  body  of  uniform  average  density  or  symmetrically  varying 
density,  the  lines  of  force  reach  their  individual  maximum  retarda- 
tion in  the  center  of  their  paths  through  the  body.  The  solid  portion 
of  the  earth,  for  instance,  may  be  considered  a  body  of  symmetrically 
varying  density ;  that  is,  while  its  density  is  greatest  in  the  geomet- 
rical center  of  mass,  the  density  decreases  uniformly  in  all  directions 
toward  the  surface.  The  rays  of  the  fabric  penetrate  the  earth  in 
every  conceivable  direction,*  forming  chords  of  every  conceivable 
length.  The  longer  the  chords,  the  greater  the  retardation;  therefore, 
the  larger  and  denser  the  body,  the  stronger  the  force  of  gravitation. 

THE  CENTER  OF   GRAVITY  OF   A  BODY  IS  THAT   POINT 

a  physical  IN    WHICH    THOSE    RAYS    OF    THE    FABRIC    OF    COSMIC 

fact  ENERGY   INTERSECT  WHICH    TAKE   THE   LONGEST  PATHS 

THROUGH   THE  BODY  AND   EXPERIENCE   MAXIMUM   AND 

EQUAL  RETARDATION  IN  THAT  POINT. 

*  The  rays  of  the  Fabric  pass  through  material  bodies  in  deflected,  tortuous  paths,  but  for  the 
purposes  of  the  present  argument  they  may  be  regarded  as  straight  lines.  The  fact  that  they  are  re- 
tarded in  their  passage  through  matter  is  of  supreme  importance  here.  And  this  fact  has  been  estab- 
lished experimentally  by  means  of  light-bearing  rays  passing  through  transparent  and  semi- 
transparent  matter.  See  Charles  R.  Gibson's  "Scientific  Ideas  of  Today,"  page  102. 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY  25 


In  a  geometrically  perfect  sphere  of  symmetrical  density,  remote  to"*61"  of 
from  possible  exterior  gravitational  influences,  the  center  of  gravity"^ 
lies  in  the  center  of  figure;  but  any  irregularity  of  shape  or  density, 


or  proximity  to  another  object,  will  necessarily  draw  the  center 
gravity  out  of  the  center  of  figure.  The  lines  of  force  which  enter  a 
sphere  like  the  earth  by  way  of  a  protuberance  like  the  plateau  of 
Tibet  attain  the  maximum  of  retardation  before  they  reach  the  cen- 
ter of  figure.  If  now  there  is  a  depression  in  the  figure  of  the  earth 
directly  opposite  the  protuberance,  the  lines  which  enter  the  earth 
by  way  of  that  depression  must  pass  still  farther  beyond  the  center 
of  figure  before  their  degree  of  retardation  balances  that  of  the 
lines  coming  from  the  direction  of  the  protuberance. 

Lines  of  the  fabric  which  pass  from  one  material  body  to  a  neigh- 
boring one  enter  the  second  body  already  more  or  less  retarded,  and 
reach  the  maximum  of  retardation  sooner  than  those  coming  from 
clear  fields.  This  moves  the  center  of  gravity  in  the  direction  of  the 
neighboring  body.  The  moon  (and  in  a  lesser  degree  the  sun)  would 
draw  the  earth's  center  of  gravity  out  of  the  axis  of  rotation  even  if 
the  center  of  gravity  were  not  thus  moved  by  the  earth's  own  irreg- 
ularity of  shape. 

When  the  lines  of  force  entering  a  body  do  so  by  way  of  both  a  *** 
neighboring  body  and  a  protuberance,  the  maximum  of  their  retarda- 


°       |J?t 


tion  is  hastened  still  more,  and  the  center  of  gravity  goes  farther  Cft|ltef  0| 
than  ever  to  meet  them.  Thus,  when  the  Tibetan  plateau  is  directly  gravity 
under  the  moon,  the  earth's  center  of  gravity  is  moved  abnormally 
far  in  the  direction  of  the  plateau.  And  it  naturally  follows  that, 
when  the  moon  and  the  'plateau  are  on  opposite  sides  of  the  earth, 
conditions  are  radically  changed,  and  the  center  of  gravity  is  not  un- 
der full  command  of  the  plateau,  but  seeks  to  draw  away  from  it 
toward  the  moon.  This  desire  is  intensified  by  the  fact  that,  when 
the  plateau  is  opposite  the  moon,  a  deep  ocean-bed  is  under  the  moon. 

When  a  wheel  or  sphere  whose  center  of  gravity,  because  of  some 
deformity,  lies  without  the  axis,  rotates  within  the  field  of  gravitative 
influence  of  another  body,  the  center  of  gravity  of  such  wheel  or 
sphere  constantly  changes  its  position  with  reference  to  the  axis  or 
center  of  figure;  and  in  a  sphere,  unless  the  disturbing  body  is  di- 
rectly over  the  equator,  the  center  of  gravity  must  also  constantly 
change  its  position  with  reference  to  the  equatorial  plane. 

As  said  once  before,  where  the  rotation  is  slow,  the  body  can  ad-  Rapid 
just  itself  in  a  quiet  way  to  the  movements  of  the  center  of  gravity  rotation 
by  alternating  acceleration  and  retardation  of  the  speed  of  rotation,  causes 
In  rapid  rotation  the  adjustment  is  accomplished  violently  at  a  certain  vio*ent 
point  in  each  revolution.  disturb- 

ance 

I  have  endeavored,  with  the  means  at  my  command,  to  picture  my 

conception  of  the  movement  of  the  earth's  center  of  gravity  during 
a  revolution,  and  the  moment  of  violent  readjustment,  in  diagrams 


26 


THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT  -  MAKING  FORCES: 


representing  five  situations.  Except  the  first  and  the  last,  which  are 
almost  simultaneous,  the  situations  are  six  hours  apart. 

Sit.  1  shows  the  location  of  the  center  of  gravity  of  the  earth 

immediately  after  the  readjustment. 
As  the  result  of  a  compromise,  fig- 
uratively speaking,  between  the 
earth's  deformity  and  the  moon, 
the  center  of  gravity  must  be  nearer 
the  axis  than  at  any  other  time. 

Sit.  2  shows  the  location  of  the 
center  of  gravity  six  hours  later, 
when  the  deformity's  pull  on  the 
center  of  gravity  is  not  only  unop- 
posed, but  aided,  by  the  moon. 

Sit.  3  shows  a  further  removal  of 
the  center  of  gravity  from  the  center 
of  figure,  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
deformity  and  the  moon  co-operate 
in  pulling  it  away.  It  is  quite  prob- 
able that  my  drawing  is  too  conser- 
vative, and  that  under  the  favorable 
circumstances  the  center  of  gravity 
proceeds  much  farther  from  the  cen- 
ter of  figure. 

Sit.  4  shows  a  still  greater  removal 
of  the  center  of  gravity,  due  to  the 
momentum  it  had  gained  in  its  easy 
progress  to  Sit.  3.  The  moon's  influ- 
ence is  now  opposed  to,  but  not  yet 
strong  enough  to  overcome,  the 
effect  of  the  earth's  rapid  rota- 
tion.    To   say  that   a   center   of 
gravity  acquires  momentum  may 
startle  by  its  novelty,  but  it  is 
one  of  the  facts  disclosed  by  a 
study  of   the  Fabric   of   Cosmic 
Energy. 

Sit.  5  shows  the  time  of  violent 
shifting  of  the  center  of  gravity 
to  the  position  shown  in  Sit.  1, 
and  indicates  the  seismic  waves 
which  the  event  produces  and  sends 
toward  the  surface  of  the  earth. 

The  drawings  aim  to  demonstrate 
that  the  earth's  center  of  gravity 
must,  under  the  alternately  co-oper- 
ating and  counteracting  influences  of 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY 


27 


the  terrestrial  deformity  and  the  nearness  of  the  moon,  describe  a 
parabolic  or  spiral  path  around  the  center  of  figure.   If  this  condition 
were  not  annulled  at  a  certain  stage  of  every  re  volution,  che  center  of 
gravity  would   perforce 
draw   farther   and   far- 
ther away  from  the  cen- 
ter of  figure. 

This  is  impossible,  for 

the  reason  that  a  rapid 

increase  in  the  distance 

between  the  centers  of 

gravity  of  the  earth 

and  the  moon 


6  PM 


IV 


28 


THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT- MAKING  FORCES : 


Moiorf 


(Sits.  4  and  5)  results  in  a  stretching  of  the  lines  of  force  running 
in  opposite  directions  through  both.    Because  of  the  degree  of  retar- 
dation in  each  center  of  gravity,  the  lines  of  energy  running  through 
both     are    tense     even 
when  the  relative  posi- 
tions of  the  gravity  cen- 
ters   are    normal,    and 
when    the    distance   be- 
tween the  centers  is  in- 
creased rapidly,  the  ten- 
sion is  increased.    At  a 
certain   moment,   which 
science  may  be  able  to 
determine  by  a 
study  of  the 
seismic  shock 
incident 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY  29 


thereto,  this  tension  is    released   and  the  moon  wins  a  compromise 
from  the  deformity  of  the  earth. 

This  proves  the  kinship  of  the  lines  of  the  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy  ynes  Of 
to  the  magnetic  lines  of  force  which  special  conditions  can  bring  into  force  are 
the  direct  and  controlled  service  of  humanity.  By  subjecting  them  to  all  of  one 
various  degrees  of  tension,  we  make  magnetic  lines  of  force  perform  family 
work  for  us.     Science  will  ultimately  glory  in  the  great  discovery 
that  the  Ruler  of  the  Univer.se  performs  all  His  wondrous  works  by 
the  same  agency. 

It  cannot  be  thought  that  the   earth's  center  of  gravity,  when  Oscillation 
suddenly  shifted,  promptly  finds  the  point  of  equilibrium.    Like  the  of  center 
center  of  gravity  of  any  other  body  which  experiences  a  violent  dis-  of  gravity 
placement,  it  will  first  go  beyond  the  point  of  equilibrium,  and  thus 
set  up  a  seismic  vibration  in  the  opposite  direction  toward  the  pla- 
teau.   In  this  manner  a  minor  tidal  wave  is  daily  generated  in  the 
Indian  Ocean,  forming  the  lesser  of  the  semi-diurnal  tides. 

This  explains  how  the  great  sea-wave  of  1837,  which  originated  in 
the  South  Pacific  Ocean,  came  to  coincide  with  an  earthquake  in  India, 
and  why  on  the  day  when  this  was  being  put  in  type  (December  20, 
1920)  press  dispatches  reported  severe  earthquakes  both  in  the  Chile- 
Argentine  Andes  and  in  the  desert  of  Gobi,  in  central  Asia. 

The  oscillatory  movements  of  violently  displaced  centers  of  grav-  May  be 
ity  may  be  studied  in  any  collision  between  rapidly  moving  heavy  studied  in 
bodies,  such  as  railroad  cars.     When  the  colliding  bodies  are  brought  cases  of 
to  a  sudden  standstill,  their  centers  of  gravity  (the  lines  of  force  colHsf011 
which  intersect  there)  continues  on  aways,  until  the  lines  of  force 
have  acquired  sufficient  tension  to  balance  the  momentum.    During 
these-  seconds  of  time  the  collided  bodies  press  against  each  other 
forcefully.  When  the  momentum  has  been  overcome,  the  centers  of 
gravity,  with  their  lines  of  force,  return  rapidly  to  their  normal  posi- 
tions, only  to  be  carried  beyond  these  positions  by  the  new  momen- 
tum acquired.  The  collided  bodies  not  only  cease  their  pressing,  but, 
with  squeaks  and  groans,  often  manage  to  draw  slightly  apart.    As 
the  centers  of  gravity  perform  another  oscillation,  the  bodies  come 
together  once  more.    Finally  they  come   to  a  state  of  rest  with  a 
vibratory  motion  suggesting  a  shudder,  responsive  to  the  short  and 
quick  oscillations  of  their  centers  of  gravity  across  their  respective 
points  of  equilibrium. 

The  moon  is  also  a  deformed  body.    There  probably  was  a  time  fAow 
when  the  moon  rotated  of  tener  than  once  a  month,  so  that  its  center  also  a 
of  gravity  did  not  always  lie  toward  the  earth.    If  so,  the  tug-of-war  deformed 
between  the  two  centers  of  gravity  must  have  been  still  more  strenu- 
ous,  the  continent-changing  forces  on  both  bodies  more  active  and 
powerful,  and  the  resultant  tides  much  higher  and  more  frequent. 
Evidently  the  moon  has  lost  out  in  the  contest,  and  its  center  of 
gravity  is  under  complete  control  of  the  earth's  center  of  gravity. 


30  THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT -MAKING  FORCES 


The  moon's  diurnal  libration  in  longitude  is  not  hap-hazard,  but  in 
strict  obedience  to  the  conditions  pictured  in  Sits.  2  and  4. 

What  is  being  taught  under  the  old  theory  of  tide-production  con- 
^  cerning  the  relation  of  "spring  tides"   and   "neap  tides"  to   the 


relative  position  of  the  earth,  moon  and  sun  holds  true  for  this  new 


Neap 

theory. 

When  the  moon  is  in  quadrature,  the  lines  of  force  operating  be- 
tween the  sun  and  earth  counteract,  in  a  measure  the  lines  of  force 
operating  between  the  moon  and  the  earth,  and  alter  the  movement 
of  the  earth's  center  of  gravity  in  a  way  that  leaves  less  play,  in 
Sit.  5,  for  the  shifting  of  the  earth's  center  of  gravity.  The  resultant 
vibrations  are  weaker  and  the  tidal  waves  lower. 

When  the  sun  and  moon  are  on  the  same  side  of  the  earth,  the 
process  pictured  in  the  five  situations  is  intensified,  and  high  4MMMttp 
tides  are  the  result. 

Higher  tides  being  the  result  of  more  pronounced  seismic  waves, 
there  must  be  greater  danger  of  the  vibrations  releasing  accumulated 
strain  and  producing  earthquakes  when  the  sun  and  moon  are  in  con- 
junction than  at  other  times,  especially  in  the  South  Pacific  region. 
Ouakes        When  the  sun  and  moon  are  on  opposite  sides  of  the  earth,  the 
most  lines  of  force  operating  between  the  sun  and  the  earth  tend  to  aggra- 
vate  the  oscillations  of  the  earth's  center  of  gravity  which  follow 
.*    the  shifting,  and  to  make  the  seismic  waves  traveling  toward  the 
Indian  Ocean  stronger,  and  the  semi-diurnal  tides  more  equal  in  size. 
Hence,  when  the  sun  and  moon  are  in  opposition,  there  is  also  more 
than  average  danger  of  earthquake,  especially  in  India  and  adjacent 
parts  of  Asia. 

In  Guyot's  "Physical  Geography"  is  found  the  following  state- 
ment corroborative  of  my  contentions  : 

"Perrey,  by  comparing  7,000  observations,  found  the  number  of 
earthquakes  occurring  at  the  syzygies  —  when  the  attraction  of  the 
sun  and  moon  is  combined  arid  the  moon  is  nearest  the  earth— greater 
than  at  the  time  of  their  quadratures,  when  the  moon  is  most  distant; 
also  that,  during  an  earthquake,  the  shocks  are  more  frequent  where 
the  moon  is  on  the  meridian." 

Secondary  With  a  view  to  simplifying  this  exposition,  I  have  proceeded  as  if 
canters  of  our  S^°^e  na(*  but  one  protuberance  and  but  one  depression,  directly 
gravity  opposite  each  other.  The  fact  is,  however,  that  the  earth  has  numer- 
ous other,  though  lesser,  deformities.  These  minor  deformities,  as 
they  enter  into  varying  relations  to  the  moon  and  the  sun,  cause 
varying  retardation  of  the  lines  of  force  passing  through  them  and 
the  extra-terrestrial  bodies.  Because  of  the  ever-changing  relations 
due  to  the  earth's  rapid  rotation,  the  lines  of  force  passing  through 
the  earth's  deformities  and  the  extra-terrestrial  bodies  cannot  all 
attain  equal  maximum  retardation  in  one  point  of  intersection  or 
center  of  gravity,  but  must  form  secondary  centers  of  gravity.  These 
secondary  centers  must  perforce  independently  go  through  all  the 


SEISMIC  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  FABRIC  OF  COSMIC  ENERGY  31 


situations  pictured  for  the  main  center,  with  the  same  effects.  Many 
minor  tides  observed  on  the  oceans  find  their  only  explanation  in  this 
fact.  To  cite  one  typical  case  : 

In  an  essay  on  "The   Secret   of   the   North  Pole,"  Richard  A. 
Proctor  wrote  : 

"But  a  circumstance  was  noticed  respecting  this  sea  [an  open  sea  Also 
lying  to  the  northeast  of  Kennedy  Channel]  which  was  very  signifi-  produce 

cant.    The  tides  ebbed  and  flowed  in  it The  narrow  straits  tides 

between  Greenland  on  the  one  side  and  Ellesmere  Land  and  Grinnell 
Land  on  the  other  are  completely  ice-bound.  We  cannot  suppose  that 
the  tidal  wave  could  have  found  its  way  beneath  such  a  barrier  as 
this.  'I  apprehend,'  says  Captain  Maury,  'that  the  tidal  wave  from 
the  Atlantic  can  no  more  pass  under  this  icy  barrier,  to  be  propagated 
in  the  seas  beyond,  than  the  vibrations  of  a  musical  string  can  pass 
with  its  notes  a  fret  on  which  the  musician  has  placed  his  finger.' 
Are  we  to  suppose,  then,  that  the  tidal  waves  were  formed  in  the 
very  sea  in  which  they  were  seen  by  Kane  and  Hayes  ?  This  is  Cap- 
tain Maury 's  opinion.  'These  tides,'  says  he,  'must  have  been  born 
in  that  cold  sea,  having  their  cradle  about  the  North  Pole'." 

Between  the  South  Pole  and  the  North  Pole  there  exists  an  in-  North  and 
equality  of  terrestrial  radii  similar  to  that  between  Tibet  and  the  South 


South  Pacific  Ocean,  the  South  Pole  being  situated  on  a  high  plateau  - 
rising  abruptly  out  of  the  Antarctic  Ocean,  and   the  North  Pole  in  an  Ul 
extensive  ocean  of  unascertained  depth. 

As  to  conditions  at  the  South  Pole,  Nelson's  Encyclopedia  soys,  in 
describing  Captain  Amundson's  discovery  of  that  Pole  : 

"On  November  11  land  was  sighted  dead  ahead,  and  on  November 
17  the  ascent  between  the  mighty  peaks  of  South  Victoria  Land  be- 
gan —  some  of  the  way  climbing  glaciers  so  steep  that  twenty  clogs 
were  required  to  pull  the  loads.  The  first  night  camp  was  pitched  at 
2,000  feet  altitude;  the  second  at  twice  that;  and  on  the  fourth  day 
later,  having  covered  seventeen  nautical  miles  and  ascender!  5,600 
feet,  camp  was  made  at  an  altitude  of  10, 600  feet.  Through  a.  heavily 
glaciated,  mountainous  country,  peaks  appeared  at  levels  of  from 
9,000  to  15,000  feet,  the  highest  being  Neilson  Mountain.  Over  the 
'Devil's  Dancing  Room'  the  party  reached  the  greatest  height, 

10,750  feet,  on  December  6 The  Pole  was  located  upon  a  vast 

ivhite,  snow-covered  plain,  slightly  descending  to  the  south,  and  at  an 
elevation  of  about  10,750  feet." 

Describing  the  Arctic  Ocean,  the  same  work  says  : 

"Apparently  there  is  no  land  in   the    higher,  latitudes,  and  the  -,- 
[North]  Pole  is  in  a  vast  sea  of  comparatively  smooth  ice." 

DO  10    HI 

Captain  Maury  was  right.    The  tides  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  "have  Arctic 
their  cradle  about  the  North  Pole." 

Several  pages  could  be  devoted  to  showing  that  other  minor  tides 
are  similarly  related  to  deformities  in  the  earth's  shape,  but  the  size 
planned  for  this  booklet  forbids  it. 

It  should  not  be  necessary  to  point  out  that  this  essay  does  not 
say  that,  because  the  vibrations  which  produce  the  tides  come  from 


32  THE  TIDES  AND  THE  CONTINENT  -  MAKING  FORCES: 


Strain-  near  the  center  of  the  earth,  the  earthquakes  periodically  resulting 
release  from  these  vibrations  also  reach  that  depth.  Just  as  there  is  no  telling 
J®  where  an  unbalanced  flywheel  will  crack  and  break  if  subjected  to  the 
*   shock-strains  too  long,  so  is  there  no  predicting  at  what  depth  in  the 
earth  the  accumulated  seismic  strains  may  produce  earthquake.    The 
depth  undoubtedly  varies  greatly.    The  vaster  the  extent  of  an  earth- 
quake, the  deeper  go  undoubtedly  its  roots.    Probably  less  than  a 
hundred  miles  from  the  earth's  surface,  the  pressure,  density  and 
rigidity  are  so  great  that  no  yielding  or  fracturing  is  possible,  and 
the  tide- generating  vibrations  are  there  undulations  pure  and  simple. 
Near  the  beginning  of  this  essay,  appeal  was  made  to  the  conclu- 
sion already  arrived  at  by  science  that  the  earth  is  rigid  throughout. 
It  must  now  be  apparent  that,  if  the  ciAist  or  egg-shell  theory  still 
governed,  this  argument  would  show  a  practical  and  sure  way  of  re- 
futing it. 

Earth        When  Geologist  Gilbert  spoke  of  "the  continent-making  forces  of 
throbs  the  earth's  crust,"  he  referred  to  the  land-lifting  forces,  for  which 
with  science  had  no  explanation.  To  explain  these  is  the  primary  object  of 
seismic  this  essay.  As  there  can  no  considerable  uplift  occur  anywhere  in  the 
pulses  surface  of  the  earth  without  a  compensating  drop  elsewhere,  this 
essay  indirectly  explains   many  other  earthquakes.     If   the  booklet 
succeeds  in  arousing  enough  interest  to  induce  seismologists  to  test 
its  statements  with  their  instruments,  it  will  be  found  that  the  earth 
throbs  with  rhythmic  heart-beats  due  to  law-governed  adjustments 
of  the  lines  or  wires  of  cosmic  energy  during  their  laborious  passage 
through  its  mass,  which  heart-beats  produce  not  only  all  true  tides, 
but  more  or  less  directly  all  the  earthquake  and  volcanic  phenomena. 
Continent-        In  the  term  "continent-making  forces  of  the  earth's  crust"  lurks 
making  more  than  one  error.    In  addition  to  harboring  the  egg-shell  fallacy, 
56  it  succors  the  more  subtle  fallacy  that  matter  can  set  itself  in  motion 
by  its  own  boot-straps.     The  explanation  of  tide  and  earthquake  phe- 
nomena advanced  by  this  essay  place  the  active  energy  in  space  —  out- 
side of  the  aggregations  of  matter  involved.   The  essay  teaches  that  the 
energy  dwells  in  the  invisible,  intangible,  and  yet  all-penetrating  and 
all-powerful  rays  or  lines  of  the  Fabric  of  Cosmic  Energy.     There  is 
strictly  complied  with  the  scientific  axiom  that  "resistance  to  change 
in  its  state  of  rest  or  of  motion  is  the  fundamental  property  of  matter. ' ' 
Falst        The  first  few  paragraphs  of  this  essay  call  attention  to  the  fact 
theory  tnat?  with  nothing  but  the  current  fallacious  theories  to  work  with,  a 
5t  man  may  live  in  the  constant  presence  of  certain  natural  phenomena, 
7  and  even  be  engaged  in  the  study  and  recording  of  them,  and  yet  re- 
herni  mam  utterly  blind  to  their  causes  and  functions.    On  the  other  hand, 
with  the  aid  of  truth  arrived  at  by  pure  reasoning,  a  man  residing  far 
away  from  an  opportunity  to  personally  observe  the  phenomena,  and 
having  but  a  general  knowledge  of  them  derived  from  books,   may  be 
enabled  to  recognize  those  causes  and  functions. 


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